Net etiquette, or as it also known: Netiquette.
When I move around the net, read other blogs, read comments left by people, I notice a fair amount of communication that can only be classified as rude and offensive. And after considering this for awhile, I concluded the following reasons for this behavior:
- People who do this realize they can do so with anonymity and therefore are more likely to let their distempered comments fly. Some people recognize this character trait as cowardice.
- It requires a bit of effort to step back and look at the other person's viewpoint. And after doing so, it requires another bit of effort to compose a response that shows respect for the other person. That's more effort than some people wish to expend. This character trait is known as laziness.
- And I guess there are those who just seem to enjoy this kind of thing. They seem to enjoy bating other people. They seem to enjoy seeing this kind of communication broadcast to the world. Now I say "seem to" in each of those last three sentences, because I'm not inside of these folks, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.
When you see someone act offensively on the net, you could engage them and perhaps some rational dialogue will turn things more civil. But I think there's a certain "type" of person on the net (he also exists in the real world) who just doesn't turn civil.
What to do?
I realized a great strategy to use when this type of behavior presents itself:
IGNORE THEM.
Don't engage them. Don't respond to their comments. Don't get caught up in their tactics. Don't even recognize them. Simply ignore them and move on.
You see, this "type" of person actually derives a good deal of his power from the good works and the good intentions of others. When you don't lend them any of that power they are, well, quite weak. Therefore, the more you ignore them, the less power they have and the less current and future impact they have on our world. And I mean both the online and offline world.
If you employ the above, I'm fairly certain you'll feel better and if you recommend this strategy to others, you're moving in the direction of putting more sanity and reason in your environment.
So there you go. Feel free to share this with your friends, families and associates. And ask them to pass it on.
